To Help A Thief
by SakuraNights01
Summary: In which Kaitou Kid saves Conan's life, and Conan gives the thief a little more thought than he had before.


**I'm gonna go ahead and get this out of the way now - I am not entirely sure how to write for Conan. I feel like I might've made him a little too snippy in this one, but hey, how would YOU respond in his situation?**

 **Also, I am inexperienced in the medical and first-aid field, so the fixes mentioned in this one are amateur at best, and are based on my own personal knowledge as well as google. :'3**

 **Don't take it too seriously, this story was very, very self-indulgent.**

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"Aww, such a caring Mini-Detective! You make a great crutch too, by the way."

"Don't think I won't let you fall, Kid. Better shut your damn mouth."

Mere minutes away from the crime scene, and they still weren't far away enough to be considered safe. This much Conan knew, and he could only ruefully consider their current options as they slowly trudged further into the small wooded area nearby. For all that he could assess from the newly dangerous situation, they were probably still being chased by whoever had shot at him.

Per the norm, the detective had been at the site of a murder with a team of investigators. He'd been there for less than 15 minutes before a gunshot rang out from somewhere very close by. The bullet apparently never hit its mark, however, and as the team scattered to find the source of the sound, a second gunshot was heard much closer this time. Conan found himself suddenly being scooped up and swiftly carried away, and he struggled briefly against his kidnapper before recognizing the all-white garb with a startled "Kaitou Kid?!"

"And a good evening to you too, Detective!" Kid responded in turn with a glance and a shaky smile in his direction. For just a second, Conan spotted the Card Gun in the thief's other hand before it disappeared with a flick of his wrist.

 _Who or what was he shooting at just now?_

His mind raced to figure out what had just happened, but his eyes alit with confusion when, after about 2 or 3 minutes of sprinting, Kid's breathing labored and he hastily slowed to a stop, pulling them behind a large tree as he did. Conan was dropped to the ground a little more roughly than he would've liked, and turned to voice his complaint. He froze when Kid himself slid down the length of the tree, groaning and slumping forward slightly when he reached the ground in what looked to be an uncomfortable sitting position.

It wasn't this action that caught the shrunken detective's words in his throat, but rather it was the large spot of blood that was rapidly blooming just above Kid's left knee that did. It was a wonder the guy could run at all, let alone even stand! Was he insane?

"W-what the hell…" he stammered before regaining his composure, "What happened to you?" Kid lifted his head and smirked, igniting the tiniest flame of irritation in Conan's belly.

"Worried about me? I'll be fine, just let me catch my breath-"

"Suck up your goddamn pride for a second! What happened?" he demanded again. If they were in danger, he needed to know immediately to start formulating a plan. Instead of information, the only thing he was getting so far was a headache. Kid shook his head, the smirk still gracing his lips.

"We've got a lot of common enemies, Detective. You do the math," he shrugged slightly, shifting in his seat before relaxing again. "For all I know, it might've been someone you're familiar with."

His offhanded comment gave Conan pause, and he was struck with a deep-seated fear for a moment that perhaps, perhaps the Black Organization had finally figured him out and targeted him-

"Or not. Actually, you've probably got a lot more people on your tail than mine. Ha ha..."

"...I beg to differ, but you're as incorrigible as ever, it seems." A 17-turned-7-year old boy shouldn't have worries about his blood pressure, but the thief had a way of raising his through the roof sometimes. That lackadaisical attitude, in this dire of a situation, could use a swift kick in the rear, he mused.

It didn't take a genius to realize that Kid had taken a bullet for him and saved him from what could've been a double-murder scene. He hadn't even had the chance to hear all of the details about the case that had been at hand, hence no suspects, no motives, nothing. A sickening thought ran through his head, that maybe the victim had been killed by his would-be assailant as a way to draw him to the scene; it would be the perfect chance to assassinate him quickly.

Except the plan clearly didn't work out, considering Kid's unexpected intervention. Something coiled in Conan's gut, that Kid - criminal that he was - never lashed out or intentionally put anyone in harm's way, yet not for the first time, he had risked his life to save him once again.

"...And if you pay _reeeal_ close attention, you can almost see the steam pouring out of his ears from overthinking," the magician muttered with amusement in a mock-tour guide tone. Conan would've slapped him silly right there if he wasn't already wrought with concern at his current condition.

"Have you no sense of urgency?! Make yourself useful and produce a bandage, or a tourniquet- or something!"

Kid, thoughtful for a second, rubbed his hands together and pulled a thin rope seemingly from thin air, hanging loosely between his fingertips. He gave him a skeptical look that questioned if it would be a good enough, but Conan snatched it from his hands and quickly set himself to work tying it around Kid's upper thigh.

 _Funny how strong of a color red is against pristine white… like murderous paint on a clean canvas, or blood-red roses that magically pop into existence with a sleight of hand…_

...Was this some bizarre method of keeping his mind distracted from going absolutely mad with whatever had just happened? Conan liked to think so; waxing poetic was Kaitou Kid's job, not his.

"You're doing it again. Whatcha thinking about?"

Conan huffed, tying off the rope with a little more force than necessary before glaring back.

"Oh, you know. Just about the migraine I'm going to have in the morning due to your incredible lack of self-concern."

"Ouch. I'm absolutely _devastated_ ," Kid drawled dramatically, complete with a hand over his heart. _Note to self, hit him with a soccer ball extra hard next time._ Conan took a step back to observe his work. It wasn't perfect by any means, but at the very least, the blood flow was somewhat stemmed and they could now focus on putting some more distance between themselves and the crime scene, at least until they were sure the area was safe.

"We're gonna need to start moving. Can you stand?"

Kid braced himself against the tree and slowly lifted himself to standing on his right leg. Good so far, but he winced when he put too much weight on his left.

"I think I can probably power through it, but it'll be slow-going," he grinned sheepishly.

"You can't make… I don't know, a walking stick appear magically?"

"And where exactly would I get one of _those_ right now? I don't just keep random objects on my person, you know."

"Yet you're able to keep a fully functioning hang glider under that cape of yours…" Conan scoffed. _Magicians_.

If Conan were alone, he could simply turn around and hightail it out of there. As it were, though, he wouldn't leave the thief behind after everything that had happened. Kid was no stranger when it came to adrenaline - it would definitely explain how he was able to carry him and run at the same time with a bullet lodged in his quadricep - but surely even that would start working against them very soon. A quick look around revealed that no branches or sticks lying around would be strong enough to support him, so he resigned himself to do what he could for the time being.

"Well, I'm pretty short, but let's see if we can't make this work out," Conan suggested and stepped closer, offering a hand to Kid.

"Why, Detective, I'm touched!"

"I can and _will_ change my mind if we don't get going right now."

After a few minutes of trial and error, they finally settled on having Kid lean down to brace himself with a hand on Conan's shoulder, while Conan kept an arm against his lower back. At the very least, they were moving somewhat faster than if they walked separately. It was not the greatest for their situation, but they were making progress - slow as it was - and that was all that mattered at the moment.

"Hey… how much farther do you think we should go...?" Kid asked after some of their usual banter had died off. Evidenced by the disguised weariness in his voice, it seemed the adrenaline from before was beginning to lose momentum.

"Not sure. Your outfit doesn't exactly scream 'inconspicuous', so it wouldn't hurt to go a little farther."

"That's the point..." Kid started again, but trailed off after checking behind them. "...Oh, that's not good."

Conan whipped his head in the direction they had just come from and was horrified to find a small but visible blood trail. He was correct in guessing that the crude fix he'd made before wouldn't last, and cursed himself for being too hasty.

"Crap. I'll backtrack over this when I can," Conan murmured under his breath. He should have foreseen this, but he was under the assumption that neither of them had any bandaging material, and he doubted Kid was willing to tear apart his cape, given its true technical function. He had hoped they could keep walking, but due to their current predicament, it would be both cruel and useless to continue. They found a place to stop, and Conan activated the scanning sensor on his glasses while Kid leaned against a tree and waited for a decision to be made. From what he could tell, any activity from before had quieted down significantly, leading him to believe that the perpetrator may have been caught already. Hopefully.

"I'm going back to check things out. If this whole ordeal is finally over with, I'll come back to get you," the detective stated firmly as he deactivated his glasses.

"Surely, you'd come back just to slap a pair of cuffs on me though, right?" Kid chuckled slightly at the remark. Conan, with all sincerity and seriousness, turned to meet his gaze.

"Just who do you think I am? I have a little more honor than that," _Cut me some slack, why don't you_? "Besides, you didn't even do anything wrong this time."

 _...Actually, now that I think about it…_

"...What _were_ you doing here, anyways?" There had been no messages or heist notices as far as he knew, and no jewels around to speak of, so there was no real explanation as to _why_ Kaitou Kid would show up now, of all times. Kid snickered a little before wagging a finger at him.

"You don't need to worry about that. Just know that my heists wouldn't be the same without my favorite little critic around."

Kid stuffed his hands in his pockets and closed his eyes, while Conan stared on in confusion. He shook himself out of his dumbfounded reverie and began running back to the crime scene, taking an extra measure to kick dirt over the same path they had taken so as to cover the bloody trail. To his surprise, they had gone a lot further than he thought. He slowed down and hid when he was close to the woods entrance, taking a moment to listen in on what was happening at the crime scene. Upon hearing the voices of several police officers and investigators, he stepped out from his hiding place.

As he'd come to find out, the murder and crime scene in its entirety had been falsified, and while the man responsible wouldn't admit to why he'd created it or why he'd fired his gun, it wasn't very difficult for Conan to figure it out - the man had done a great deal of shouting at him as he was being questioned, after all. Although Conan was relieved that no one had been killed - particularly on his behalf - he still found it disturbing that all of this had been set up to lure himself out specifically. He scanned over the collection of evidence that was piled together near a police vehicle, but stopped when his eyes passed over a playing card. Closer inspection revealed an ace of clubs, complete with metal edges: undoubtedly ammunition from Kid's Card Gun.

 _Kid…._

"If that damned thief had just helped me in the first place instead of getting in my way, none of this would be happening!"

In that moment, the would-be murderer, who was now being settled into a police car, began shouting again. The officers spoke strictly, trying to calm him down and get him to sit, but Conan, frozen by this revelation, didn't hear the rest of the man's tirade.

For whatever reason, this man had some kind of grudge against him, and had tried to enlist Kaitou Kid's help. He may have even tried convincing him with the whole "revenge" bit, seeing as Conan had been dubbed "Kid Killer" on numerous occasions due to their many face-offs. Evidently, Kid had refused, then showed up to thwart his plans when the man made it clear that he wouldn't be giving up on this endeavor just yet.

Conan shuddered at the thought of being made to have security escort everywhere he went, and prayed that no one would go to such extremes should the man finally reveal why he went so far as to set all of this up. However, he would have to take extra precautions now - he was only lucky this time because Kid had gotten involved.

Speaking of which…

Conan quickly dismissed himself from the group, making sure to ask for a paramedic to be on standby as well, since he "thought he saw a hurt man wander into the woods a few minutes ago". Several officers had called after him, offering to help, but he easily waved them off. As much of a help they would be in a normal circumstance, leading a group of policemen to an internationally wanted criminal would spell disaster, regardless of what he'd done for him. And as much as Conan wanted to catch the thief, he wasn't willing to give him up so easily. Not when he didn't have a fair chance to fight back.

Once he was out of sight, he immediately broke out into a dash back along the path they had taken before as best as he could remember. As he made his way back, Conan chided himself for possibly making a poor decision - that he, a 7-year old boy, denied assistance from grown men who'd be able to help them faster. Kaitou Kid was not an idiot, and may very well have disguised himself as someone else entirely, and now they'd have to limp all the way back on their own like before. _Goddamn it._

His concerns were unfounded, he realized, when he returned to where he was certain he'd left Kid behind. The thief was nowhere in sight, and he panicked for a moment until he discovered a Kaitou Kid card that had been gently laid against the tree roots.

 _For the time being, I will borrow what is, and has before been, shared between us._

 _Upon our next meeting, mayhaps we will be as two different, free entities._

 _-Kaitou Kid_

"Something that's been shared between us… now you're not even trying to be clever," Conan mumbled with a smirk. At the very least, it was obvious what the thief was going to do now. He himself wasn't too pleased with the idea of Kid borrowing his face yet again, but if it got him the help he needed, then it didn't matter.

It was the second verse that confused him, however: _Two different, free entities_? He was still referring to the both of them, and a moment of consideration revealed the answer he sought. In his usual distasteful way, he was offering some kind of encouragement, that Conan might finally find the cure for his shrunken form and return to normal, and Kid would… well, he would be whoever he was when he wasn't traipsing around the country swiping gems left and right. Kid was being awfully ambitious, though, so saying that they would have accomplished their goals by the time they saw each other again. Such an achievement was sure to be quite a ways away from his reach, anyways, the morose thought drifted through his mind. In regards to "free", it could be a small hope that they'd be free from dangerous situations such as this one. It was a small hope, sure... but he'd been damned if that didn't fill him with some kind of faith.

Maybe he didn't give the thief nearly enough credit.

"Geez… if you're going to be cheesy, at least have the decency to clean up after yourself," Conan spoke up again, kicking dirt over a few small spots of blood that had been left behind from where Kid was standing before. There were no other blood trails leading away from there, so he assumed he must have gone up. Where on Earth did he find the energy to keep going? Conan shook his head and started back on the path to the crime scene, barely noticing the bright smile he wore on his face. _Free_ … that was a nice thought.

A few days later, just as he'd expected, he learned that Shinichi Kudo had been admitted to the hospital the night all of this had happened, and was recovering quite well after surgery (and a blood transfusion, he remembered with a grimace). He blanched when Ran insisted that they visit him while he was there, but he could find no plausible excuse to get out of this one. He finally relented after an admirable amount of hesitation with a sigh.

He hadn't even had the chance to thank Kid for saving his life, after all.

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 **I think I was pretty tired when I wrote the ending, so forgive me if it feels like a complete cop out! I had an idea of how I wanted this story to end, but had a couple different routes I could've taken to get there, and this one just felt better.**

 **Hope you enjoyed!**


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